Residential, commercial and industrial refuse is typically stored and contained in a variety of receptacles or containers including cans, carts and dumpsters prior to pick-up by a refuse collection vehicle. A refuse collection vehicle used to collect and transport the refuse typically includes a large storage body in which the refuse is aggregated during collection. To reduce the overall time required for handling refuse contained in smaller receptacles or containers such as cans and carts, many refuse collection vehicles are equipped with intermediate containers or "carry-cans" which, when full, are unloaded into the storage body.
To unload the refuse contained in the container, the container is typically lifted and inverted over and above an access opening of the storage body. Alternatively, the container is lifted over and above the access opening, inverted and then lowered through the access opening. Both methods require that the container be inverted over and above the access opening. As the container is inverted, refuse begins to fall out of the container. As a result, the refuse spills over the sides and top of the truck, littering the street or surrounding area. Wind aggravates this problem with lighter refuse such as paper, plastic jugs and grass clippings.
In recent years, communities and states have developed programs for the segregation and collection of recyclable refuse or commodities to minimize consumption of natural resources and the exhaustion of land fills. As a result, the particular types of recyclable refuse must be segregated from other types of recyclable refuse and from non-recyclable refuse. Consequently, storage bodies and intermediate containers of refuse collection vehicles have been compartmentalized to accommodate the need for segregating recyclable and non-recyclable refuse. This compartmentalization of the storage body and the intermediate container has created smaller compartments and correspondingly smaller access openings. Due to spacing requirements, the multiple access openings of the multiple compartments are often located adjacent one another. The smaller access openings as well as the closer proximity of the multiple access openings has further increased the need for precise unloading to avoid not only littering of the surrounding environment but also to avoid cross-contamination of the recyclable and non-recyclable refuse. This need for precise unloading of refuse has been further magnified because a wind now has a larger effect on lighter refuse such as paper, plastic jugs and aluminum cans which are frequently segregated from other larger and heavier refuse. As a result, there is a continuing need for a method and apparatus for precisely unloading refuse from a container into a storage body or the intermediate container of a refuse collection vehicle and for unloading the refuse from the intermediate container into the storage body of the refuse collection vehicle to avoid littering of the surrounding environment and to avoid cross-contamination of segregated refuse.